Well, this was it. This was her chance to meet someone who not only had her same condition but managed to get a human to fall in love with her. Nijia might've shivered had she been a human, but as she slithered into the safehouse's lobby, she did her best not to show any fear. She remembered being unafraid the last few times she'd been in high-security areas, slipping through with nary a thought of worry... why was she so twitchy today?
Never mind, she had to get onto the elevator. After coiling into the box and pressing the right button, she let out a tense sigh, trying to center herself but failing miserably. It felt like her innards were tied into a knot, and the ascension didn't help. When she checked her phone, there wasn't a scrap of new intel that would help her; when she habitually drew her plasma pistol and fiddled with the charging handle, it just made her worry she'd be too intimidating. Just relax and breathe, she told herself, everything's going to be just fine... you'll see.
Meanwhile, the twin objects of Nijia's anxiety were busy lounging on the couch, entwined beneath a fleece blanket watching TV shows. Crimson Cove was on once again, and Hssara was trying to explain the plot she only half-understood to Clark. "So Veronica has been fooling around with this guy from her chemicals class, Dave," she began, "But last time we found out that she was hooking up with Chet, which is extra bad because he's a 'senior' and she's a 'sophomore.' What's that mean again?"
"Senior means it's your fourth year in high school," Clark explained, "And sophomore means it's your second year."
"Right."
The human furrowed his brow to ask a question of his own. "Veronica is a vampire, and Chet's a..."
"He's a wolf-dude."
"You mean a werewolf?"
"Yeah, that."
"Uh huh..." Clark briefly disengaged himself from the whimsy of supernatural high school to take a look at the clock, and that in turn led to more thoughts about the supposed meeting at the burger joint. He had no intention of going, of course, and he'd pondered reporting the location to ADVENT, but right now, that was two days away. According to the 4:01 on the clock, their new roommate was bound to show up any second... unless she was somehow late. "You know, that other viper will be here in a bit, maybe we should-"
The doorbell cut him off, and a quick glance over revealed a shadow waiting on the other side of the door. He noticed Hssara grow a tad tense, but his serpentine lover pushed the worry from her mind before Clark could ask. "Guess that's her," she said, already beginning to unwrap herself from around her human heater.
Once they were both up, Clark couldn't help but glance down at himself, at the simple t-shirt and sweats he wore that signaled nothing but apathy. "Maybe we should clean up a bit," he sighed, combing his hair back with one hand.
"Clean up?" As Clark slicked his hair back, Hssara couldn't help but feel a slight spark of something others would recognize as jealousy. Somehow, the concept of Clark prettying himself up for another viper vexed her, and that in turn kindled suspicion. "Why?"
"I dunno, might be worth it to put on a good first impression."
As if to counter his point, the doorbell rang again, and on the other side of the door, Nijia's worries ran rampant. What if they didn't want her around? What if they hated her? What if ADVENT decided she wasn't the right fit for the program and threw her back into guard duty?
She remembered doing it before, but the hours of patrolling about held absolutely no fondness for her, and now that her condition had developed, other vipers hardly held her in high regard. Maybe this other viper would hate her too. Maybe-
At that moment, Hssara opened the door, and she wasn't nearly as surprised as Nijia to see a viper sitting on the other side. As the two looked each other over, Hssara began to notice the stark differences between the two of them: Nijia's scales were a slate grey on her back and a dull white on her belly, with black and white stripes running up her back and around her hood. Where Hssara had yellow eyes, Nijia had blue, and where Hssara had on a simple wooly sweater, Nijia wore the traditional armor of a viper. In that split second, Hssara did her best to size up what her instincts said was a rival. She reminded Hssara of the days when Clark first met, how she'd been tantalizingly clad in a serious getup... and to make matters worse, Nijia seemed like she was acting like a damsel in distress. "Hey there," she eventually offered, "Why don't you come in?" She stood to the side and swung her arm toward the rest of the room in traditional fashion, doing her best not to let her instincts surface.